Fame and Fortune vs Certain Death
by lucindamellark
Summary: What it would be like if the Hunger Games characters read the Hunger Games trilogy?
1. Chapter 1

_I did not steal my idea from anyone. Or anything. I really liked the idea, and I hope you all like the story! I do not own anything._

Fame and Fortune vs. Certain Death.

I wake up screaming for my father to run. My body is covered in sweat, and my recent nightmare had been about the mine explosion my father was killed in. I kept on telling him to run, but he kept on mining, laughing with his friends. "RUN!" I screamed, before I was blown into blindness. I got up, shivering and trying to clear the nightmare from my thoughts…..again. This same nightmare plagues me every night, and not once am I able to stop him or get his attention. The last thing I see is his laugh changing to a look of shock and then getting blown into bits. To get my mind off things, I dress in my normal hunting clothes and headed into the living room.

"Prim?" I call. "Mom?" At least one of them waits until I get up to go to town. Where are they?

"Katniss, honey?" my mother responds. "Are you awake?"

"Yes. Mom, where's Prim?" I ask.

"Oh, she was summoned somewhere. Haymitch Abernathy came to get her this morning. That reminds me, their waiting for you. Here's the address." She says, and then leaves the room. She handed me a sheet of paper that has a place scrawled on it. I decide not to call her back and ask any of the questions that just popped into my mind, and head for the address. It's Haymitch Abernathy's house, the only living District 12 victor of the Hunger Games. I decide not to think about the Hunger Games right now. Truly, thinking about them makes me sick. But don't worry; I'm sure it'll pop up soon enough. As for District 12, you might be wondering what that is. Well, out of the ashes of "North America" rose Panem, ringed by 13 Districts and a Capitol. Quite a while ago, the Darks Day's arose, where there was a war. Capitol vs. Districts. The Capitol won, and to prove their superiority, District 13 got destroyed and the Hunger Games were born. Once again, I won't talk about the Games. They truly make me sick.

I get to the house in no time, and stop in front of the door. I ring the doorbell and Prim opens the door. She hugs me quickly, takes my hand, and leads me to the living room. Is that what you call this gigantic mess? All throughout the house is garbage. The smell of liquor and bile is enough to knock you unconscious. How does someone live in this condition?

"What's going on, Prim?" I ask. She just silently puts her finger to her lips and leads me to the couch. It appears to be the only clean spot in this house. Seating on and around it are a crowd of people who I have no idea how they all got together here. Finnick Odair, who lives in District 4 and was a Victor for the Hunger Games, Peeta Mellark, who I will not get into detail with, Gale Hawthorne, my hunting partner and best friend, Haymitch Abernathy, already explained who he was, Johanna Mason, lives in District 7 and was a Victor of the Hunger Games, and 4 other people who I have no idea who they are.

"Katniss. Welcome." Says Haymitch. "You're probably wondering why you're here. Well….so am I. Today a suspicious package showed up on my doorstep, along with a list. You were on this list. Simple enough, right? Everyone here was on this list. Beats me why…..but you all are. Including me. The package has books-"

"Books? I came here to read a book? You're kidding me, right?" says Johanna. I can't help agreeing with her. Why do we need to read a book?

Haymitch shoots daggers at Johanna. "Anyway, before I get to the books, I will ask you to all say your name.

"Thresh" says the boy with dark skin.

"Rue" says a little girl around Prim's age that has the same skin colour as the boy.

"Johanna Mason" says Johanna.

"Finnick Odair," says Finnick.

"Gale Hawthorne" says Gale.

"Peeta Mellark" says Peeta.

"Chaff" says a man sitting next to Haymitch.

"Beetee" says a man with huge glasses.

"Primrose Everdeen" says Prim.

"Uh, and I'm Katniss Everdeen" I say.

"Excellent. For those of you who aren't aware, although I find that highly unlikely, my name is Haymitch Abernathy. Winner of the 50th Quarter Quell. Famous for-"

"We get it." I snap, annoyed.

"Oh, feisty, this one." Says Finnick. This makes both Gale and Peeta raise their heads, glaring at him.

"Can we please just get to the "suspicious package"" mocks Johanna.

"Okay. Fine. These books are based on something we all know. The Hunger Games. This didn't surprise me much, considering everyone knows about the Hunger Games. But why were they delievered to my house, you may ask-"

"Really, because none of us asked" says Finnick.

"Shut up! As I was saying, the reason why these books were delivered to my house was because they have every person who was on the list in them. There are 3 books. So, a trilogy."

"No. Really?" says Johanna, "I would have never guessed."

"ANYWAY, I read the note and it says that these books would be useful in a way that they determine the future. What is going to happen today, tomorrow, next year? In 10 years?-"

"How about right now" says Gale. Murmurs of agreement go among the group.

"Fine. The first person to read the book will be you, Everdeen."

"There's two of us." I say.

"_Katniss _Everdeen" Haymitch repeats.

"Oh, yay. Excellent. Just a question, but where _are _the books, exactly?" I ask.

"Oh, right. Here." Says Haymitch, handing me a box. Inside are 3 books, the first one with a picture of a Mockingjay…pin?

"Are you sure you want to read these?" I ask.

"Positive. Now read." Haymitch responds.

I open the book, and begin Chapter 1.


	2. Chapter 4

I did not steal my idea from anyone. Or anything. I really liked the idea, and I hope you all like the story! I do not own anything. Everything belongs to Suzanne Collins, etc etc.

ALSO I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long! Things have been really hectic, and anyway, I'm going to be updating a lot more frequently (hopefully).

The Note, or the Death Sentence

Everyone in the room paused, preparing for the next chapter, but no sound came from where Finnick stood outside.

"HELLO?" yelled Haymitch out the window, "ARE YOU GOING TO MAYBE _TELL THE STORY?"_

"HANG ON," he yelled back, "I FOUND A NOTE AT THE BACK!"

"Can someone go let him in, unfortunately?" said Haymitch, resulting in defeated glances all around the room. "What? We need to let him in if we want to see this note."

"What if he's lying?" asked Peeta, "It's more likely that he's lying so he can get back in here."

"THANK YOU PEETA, FOR YOUR UTMOST FAITH," yelled Finnick through the window, "HOWEVER, AS CONVINCING AS YOUR ARGUMENT IS, I AM HOLDING A SHEET OF PAPER THAT SAYS "TO HAYMITCH AND RESPECTED COMPANY," AND IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE IT THEN I CAN KEEP IT TO MYSELF."

"Can someone just let him in, already?" sighed Gale, "I don't have forever to wait in this diseased room."

"Yeah," added Johanna, "who knows what unknown illness we've all probably contracted by now."

"Thank you both for your kind words," said Haymitch sarcastically, "but seeing as neither of you have gone to open the door, I take it that you, in fact, _enjoy _this room."

"CAN SOMEONE JUST OPEN THE DOOR?" yelled Finnick, "IT'S QUITE COLD OUT HERE."

"Fine," sighed Katniss, and she went to go unlock the door, bringing in a slightly rumpled looking Finnick, with dirt running down the side of his face where he obviously fell. For the first time, however, Finnick wasn't wearing a smirk or anything near a smile; in fact, he looked as though someone had just delivered a notice saying all his loved ones had perished in a fire.

"What's the matter, Finnick, the Capitol forgot to iron your bed sheets today?" asked Johanna sarcastically, "you look like you just got your death sentence."

"That's because I did, technically," he muttered, "see for yourself."

"Wait, what does he mean by death sentence, Haymitch," started Gale, reaching for the note in Finnick's outstretched hand, "he can't be serious."

Haymitch, however, grabbed the note before Gale could. "I don't know, why don't you let me actually read it first," said Haymitch.

_ Dear Haymitch, and Respected Company of Characters,_

_My name is Suzanne Collins. Something you should know about me is that I do not exist in your world; how strange must that sound to you, and I understand that you do not believe me. That is perfectly normal; why should you? You can try and search throughout all your twelve districts, but I will be in none. Why is that? Because I exist in the future. My ancestors have already lived through your story, and they exist among you right now. Your world is a thing of the past, and the only place that I have been able to trace it in is through history books and the stories passed down through my family. But that is unnecessary. The real thing that I would like to discuss with you is these books that I have arranged for you to get promptly at this time. My generation has things such as time travel that enable for this to happen._

_The point of these books, however, is nothing but a warning. The events that will occur within these pages will happen to you. There will be some of you whose deaths will be foretold within the pages of these three novels. Do not be scared; there is nothing you can do to change the course of events that are in here. If you try, you will cease to exist. _

_I feel as though the way each of your stories played out was unjust, and because it is this particular group of people who are currently reading these books that proceeded to make the biggest historical impacts on my society, I feel like you deserve to know what's coming for you. I realize that some of you, upon reading the final pages of Mockingjay, might feel that the story I am telling you is not fair. Please don't try and change the way these events occur. It is very dangerous when one messes with the desired nature of things; trust me, I know._

_So read these books, please do. You can choose not to if that is what you want, that choice is entirely yours. Whether or not you want to know how your fate plays out is a choice that I have now given you access to. You can choose to burn the books, you can destroy them if you want. Just know that it is no one's fate but your own that lies within these pages. If you tell anyone besides who I have carefully instructed to hear the content of these pages, you will die. _

_Sincerely yours,_

_Suzanne Collins_

Everyone stayed silent for what felt like years. They all had already known that it was them who were the characters in these novels. None of them, however, could have ever guessed what terrible, terrible things these three books were. Each of them wanted to both burn the books to the ground, and also read each of them over and over again until they had them memorized. None of them, however, wanted to pick them up and continue reading. Who knew who would be the first to die? What would become of that person who had their death foretold to them in a series of embellished words? More importantly, if they did choose to know, what would they do with that information, if they could do nothing to change it?

Finally, after what felt like forever, it was none but Finnick who spoke first.

"Ok, well, that's quite morbid, to be honest, but she is right. It's our choice whether or not we want to read this. So if that clock on Haymitch's diseased wall still works, than that means it's close to lunch time. So this is how it's going to play out," he said, looking up at them all. "We all go to our individual arrangements and eat lunch, but more importantly, we will all decide whether or not we want to stay and continue reading. Those who come back will start the books from where we left off; they will have chosen their fates. But those who do not come back, just know that we will not go back if you decide you want to come back when we've already moved on. These books will be burned after we're done with them, and anyone who chooses today must not tell a soul what lies within these pages. If you do, then you heard what the note said: you'll die. The choice is yours.

"Now go."


End file.
